Indian American Beej Das raises $425,000 for Congress run in Massachusetts

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Indian American Beej Das of Massachusetts recently announced in a campaign press release that he has raised $425,000 for his Congress run this year and currently has $550,000 cash on hand, according to the Lowell Sun.

Das is running against Lori Trahan and 13 more democrats, to replace 3rd Congressional District Rep. Niki Tsongas’ seat, according to the Lowell Sun.

“I’m incredibly grateful for the number of individuals who believe in my campaign enough to support it financially. I’m particularly proud that more than half of our donations in the fourth quarter are small donations under $200. We were determined to raise the necessary funds for a competitive race that will allow us to run a grassroots campaign and meet as many voters as possible,” Das said in the release.

According to his website, the issues Das is focusing on include education, the economy, immigration, healthcare, taxes and regulations, and veterans and the military.

“Politicians constantly paint a picture of a clash between their own good ideas and their opponents’ evil ones. This isn’t normal but it has become politics as usual.  We must change the national dialogue to accommodate differences but still act upon shared beliefs and goals,” Das states on his website.

“Our federal system was designed that Mississippi and Massachusetts were not supposed to necessarily be similar but they are expected to share a common thread. We can fix the dysfunction in Washington by bridging between differing viewpoints and finding common ground.  If we are true to the principles our Founding Fathers established, we will constructively engage with each other and do more together,” he adds.

Das is a “constitutional lawyer by training, but an entrepreneur at heart” and has “built an innovative hotel company” which has over 100 full-time employees in three states, according to his website.

Both of his parents came from India in the early 1960’s to study and build a better life for themselves, they eventually received their Ph.D.s at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and his mom became a professor at Lowell State College while his dad became one of America’s top engineers, according to his website.

Das’ love for business started at the age of 12 when he accompanied his dad in various projects.

“I started helping dad when I was twelve. I wrote software, designed and authored user documentation and provided technical support for our clients, including GE’s engine division in nearby Lynn. Needless to say, I learned the fundamentals of structures and engineering well before I could drive. I worked at dad’s company, Das Consulting, Inc. in Lawrence, through high school and college. It was while working there that, at age fifteen; I won a bid for a large contract for the United States Navy for advanced linguistic systems at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, becoming the youngest person in history to do so,” he states on his website.

Das received his Political Science degree from Middlebury College in Vermont after he attended UMass Lowell and grew fond of politics in 1988 when he was the President of the Young Democrats as well as an early volunteer for Gov. Michael Dukakis.

He then went on to study law at the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor before becoming a “federal law clerk to Hon. Judge Benson Everett Legg of the United States District Court for Maryland where I helped decide cases ranging from civil rights, affirmative action and discrimination, commercial disputes, intellectual property, to drugs and other criminal matters,” according to his website.

Das then returned to UMass Lowell to teach classes on the sociology of law and started a career at a leading Boston law firm before joining the hotel business.

(This story has been corrected and revised with a correction in the amount raised by the candidate.)